Abaco claims 3U VPX board is first to use Xilinx RF SoC technology
Abaco Systems has announced the VP430 Direct RF Processing System, claiming it to be the first 3U VPX custom off the shelf (COTS) solution to feature the Xilinx ZU27DR RF system on chip (RFSoC) technology.
It is also one of the densest analogue FPGA DSP boards available, says Abaco, with eight ADC and DAC synchronised channels, and with the ability to synchronise multiple boards for even larger system applications.
When combined with Abaco’s portfolio of 3U VPX multi-architecture processing boards, including single board computers (SBCs) and graphics processor units (GPUs), developers can use the VP430 to build complete systems from high performance, interoperable COTS components, says Abaco.
Designed for advanced electronic warfare applications including multiple input/output (MIMO), beamforming, sensor processing and radar signal processing, the VP430 enables the use of fewer boards and much less power, explains Abaco, while delivering increased processing throughput. For comparable capability, it occupies one fourth of the slots that earlier generation solutions would require.
The VP430 includes the option to be built with a FireFly eight-channel VITA 66.4 fibre optic interface for transfers of greater than 12Gbyte per second for applications in which the throughput of the native VPX PCI Express Gen3 data plane is inadequate or when a remote client requires streaming data.
The cost- and complexity challenge of RF systems with multiple channels (more channels means more expensive and large RF signal up/down conversion and signal conditioning), the VP430 enables direct RF sampling which can be implemented in the digital domain, bringing greater flexibility to the signal processing chain.
Additionally, simplified integration with RF sampling devices removes the complexity of JESD204B high speed serial interfaces, adds Abaco.
The new Xilinx RFSoC brings a combination of FPGA processing capability, a multi-processor embedded Arm Cortex-A53 application processing unit (APU), an Arm real time processing unit (RPU) and eight input analogue-to-digital converter(ADC) and eight digital-to-analogue converter (DAC) channels.
The Zynq Ultrascale+ architecture additionally integrates features to enable high security IP protection. The RFSoC brings extreme analogue bandwidth with a sustained throughput of six Gsamples per second, per channel and greater than 12Gbyte per second per channel digital offload capability.
Abaco is taking orders now for the VP430.
